I miss my ducks :(

[Sweetfolly]

So sorry for your loss. Only you and your family will be able to decide what to do with the dog.

Are you sure that none of the ducks are somewhere else hiding? Most domestic dogs would not completely do away with the carcass. Were the ducks in a covered area, could they have flown even over a fence when scared? I would try to look in every nook and craney for them. I just can't believe that a dog would be able to do away with that many in a short time period.

As Miss Lydia suggested can a smaller person/child try to get the hurt duck?

Good luck with whatever you decide.

I also agree with this - dog attacks on poultry/ducks tend to be very messy, and they rarely actually eat the birds that they attack - when a domestic dog attacks poultry, it's more for fun (as sad and terrible as that sounds).

The only animal I've ever known to take my ducks away without leaving any evidence is a raccoon - we couldn't figure out where the ducks had been vanishing to until we went out to lock up the birds later than usual one evening and caught the raccoon in the act! Both ducks in that pen at the time were missing (a breeding pair!

) but we only found one body. We searched the entire 7 acre property and never found the female. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that she died that night too - the raccoon we caught in the act was young, it might have been a group of juveniles, and the reason we didn't find the body is that it had been dragged up into a tree or a nest somewhere. They will sometimes kill several birds and then drag them "home" one by one.

 

[dumb_cluck]

What breed of dog? Most dogs are "predators" especially when things move fast. Others are born "killers".

As far as the ducks, you should house them in something at least "dog proof" until you can determine what to do next.

I have a GSD (german shepherd), he is a sweetie, but I will NOT let him near the livestock because of the inherited "chase" and perhaps "kill" instinct.

Think hard before getting rid of the dog, he/she is only doing what nature has imprinted for hundreds of years...... (that';s why I asked the breed earlier....)

Good luck.

Let us know what happens in any case.

 

[homemakerjulie]

I wanted to let you all know the update. I ended up lockInv the dog in a shed building with food and water, it was the only way to keep her put up. A week after the attacks I went to visit my hubby in Illinois, he was there for work for several weeks. I picked some adult ducks so my boys would not get lonely. Then two weeks later I had to go and pick hubby up, when we got home the dog had broken the window, screen and chicken wire that covered the window (I used it for birds sometimes). I just knew all my ducks would be gone. She got all but the previously injured duck on one of the new females. Of course before we saw the ducks we watched as she almost killed one of our cats. So the total was 15 ducks, one dog and one dog permanatly injured (she bit through her voice box!). We figure something just snapped in her. She is gone. My husband was not going to wait one more day to see if we could rehome her. There was no way to contain her and we where not going to wait and see what else would be dead in the morning.

The injured duck is recovering, in the second attack his first wound was reopened and made about an inch longer and then two more gashes. So he is a trooper!

 

[Mum]

Oh no!! Thank you for the update; but, oh how sad

 

[jdywntr]

I wanted to let you all know the update. I ended up lockInv the dog in a shed building with food and water, it was the only way to keep her put up. A week after the attacks I went to visit my hubby in Illinois, he was there for work for several weeks. I picked some adult ducks so my boys would not get lonely. Then two weeks later I had to go and pick hubby up, when we got home the dog had broken the window, screen and chicken wire that covered the window (I used it for birds sometimes). I just knew all my ducks would be gone. She got all but the previously injured duck on one of the new females. Of course before we saw the ducks we watched as she almost killed one of our cats. So the total was 15 ducks, one dog and one dog permanatly injured (she bit through her voice box!). We figure something just snapped in her. She is gone. My husband was not going to wait one more day to see if we could rehome her. There was no way to contain her and we where not going to wait and see what else would be dead in the morning.
The injured duck is recovering, in the second attack his first wound was reopened and made about an inch longer and then two more gashes. So he is a trooper!

So sorry for the losses. I do think that sometimes the prey drive can be too great in some dogs. I think that you made the right decision. A dog that attacks so many different species is not safe or trustworthy for animals or people. Sorry.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So sorry for the losses. I do think that sometimes the prey drive can be too great in some dogs. I think that you made the right decision. A dog that attacks so many different species is not safe or trustworthy for animals or people. Sorry.

X2

 

[Karen09]

I am so so sorry for you loss of not only all your ducks but also by the sounds of it, a good watch dog for your yard. It is hard when that happens. We had a beagle who had a pen near the coop on one side and a golden retriever on the other. The golden retriever would allow the chickens to eat out of his bowl and when the buff orphingtons were near him and sitting close, they looked from a distance like they could be his puppies. The beagle on the other hand wanted those chickens so bad, he would wait for them to come close enough and then go after them. He ended up getting, killing and eating 2 RIR hens. So we had him in the house and I had 4 silkie hens sitting on eggs in the basement in different pens (cardboard boxes) and he somehow got the door opened and went to the basement and killed a hen, chased another off the nest so all the eggs under those two died (to hatch in 5 days). By the time I got home, my husband had relocated him to a beagle farm to be trained to be a bird dog (which is what he wanted). Last year we had trouble with raccoons and fox. I got a yellow lab "retired" breeding dog who had never had those instincts activated (8 years old) and she lives with the chickens and never bothers them but does keep away the preditors. Hopefully you will be able to find new ducks and possibly a guard dog that keeps away anything that can harm your babies.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I had a golden retriever and beagle at one time too! They were both great with the chickens and adult ducks (3 chickens slept in the beagle's dog house with himm) but once momma duck came by with ducklings it was all over. He couldn't resist those fluffy chew toys. I just locked the ducklings and mom up and everything was fine.